Comparison of Penile Skin Swab with Intra-Urethral Swab and First Void Urine for Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis Urethritis in Male Patients

摘要

Chlamydia trachomatis is considered the most frequent cause of male non-gonococcal urethritis. Nevertheless, the pathogen may be also detected in urethral specimens of men suffering from gonococcal urethritis and in asymptomatic cases. Nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAATs) have currently become the diagnostic methods of choice and have increased the overall diagnostic yield. Preferred specimens are considered either the intraurethral swab (IUS) or more recently the first void urine (FVU), a noninvasive sampling method, which facilitates large epidemiologic studies. In addition, there are anecdotal reports comparing alternative non-invasive sampling methods, such as the glans-penis swab for supplementing molecular diagnosis. In the current study we compared a noninvasive sampling method, the penile skin swab (PSS), with the IUS and FVU sampling procedures in the molecular diagnosis of male C. trachomatis urethritis.